Trial Under Fire

It's easy to trust God when things are going well for us, when the road ahead seems pretty straightforward. But what about those times when the ground gives way & we find ourselves in a pit? There are times when the pit is brought about by our own disobedience. David discovered that when he had a man killed because he lusted after the man's wife. David had to walk through his own mire of regret. 

But what about those times when suddenly we find ourselves in a pit not of our own making? A pit that someone else has dug for us? Do we do as Job's wife suggested? Do we just blame God for our misfortune & die? Will that solve our dilemma? Will that bring peace? I think not!

Both Job & Joseph knew all too well the suffering endured through no fault of their own. Job handled it by crying out to God, searching for answers. Joseph handled it by drawing all his strength from God. I have no doubt Joseph had moments of despair as he languished in that dark prison cell. Job's cry was outright & open, but we don't hear about the pain Joseph suffered emotionally. The Bible only tells us that he drew near to God. But we can safely assume that Joseph felt the sting of betrayal, felt the pain of loss. 

I love the story of Joseph! What a wonderful role model he is for us all! Through all his years of trial, he sought God, he made use of every opportunity to share the greatness of God. Through his ordeal he brought success to others. Joseph's faithfulness to God, despite his circumstances, manifested in his behaviour to others. In turn he received blessings from God, even in his darkest moments. God showed favour to Joseph. To some it may not seem that way. If God loved Joseph so much, why did he allow Joseph to be thrown in a pit & sold as a slave? Why did he allow Joseph to be put in prison for a crime he didn't commit? 

God did not cause Joseph's brothers to be jealous, or to have murderous thoughts. God did not cause Potiphar's wife to try & seduce Joseph. But God had a master plan, & if you look at the story unravelling, we are part of that master plan, part of the story of Joseph. God used those circumstances to increase the line of Abraham. Had Joseph not been in this particular place at this particular time, the family of Jacob & all his people would have perished in a famine that spread through the land. 

But let's look at Joseph himself as he rose above the ranks & gained a position of power. Do you really think that Joseph considered this the ideal place for him? He was a stranger in a strange land. These people did not worship his God. They worshipped many gods. Joseph had no family, no one to share his deepest thoughts with. Joseph had lost all that was precious to him. He had no one but his God. Yet he remained faithful to God through it all, rather he clung to God all the more. He may not have understood the "why", but he trusted God enough to endure, nevertheless.  He didn't try to escape, he didn't cause a stir. He stayed where he was, doing what he did because he knew this was where God placed him. He thanked God and continued to do what God set out for him to do. 

God rewarded Joseph for his faithfulness, with  untold riches, a position of power, a comfortable life. But his ultimate reward came through reconciliation & forgiveness of the very people who caused his life of hardship, his brothers. God used every trial that Joseph endured for the greater good. God did give back to Joseph the years the locusts had taken. He did the same for Job. Both men discovered the essence of who God is, both in their individual journeys. Both became better & stronger & wiser because of it. I'm sure that if we could talk to both these men right now, they would attest to the greatness & goodness of God. Because ultimately, through their very own pit of hardship, they discovered the Father heart of God. 

About Peace

Peace comes in the "handing over" to God. We pray....make our request known to God....acknowledging that He is in control. But saying thank you before we've even received the answer....especially the answer we desire? What if He says no to what we request? What if He seems silent? Can we say thank you & mean it? Even if we don't get what we asked for? Peace is, knowing that He has heard our prayer....is answering it according to His will for us.....knowing that "all things work together for good, to those that love the Lord...." And most of all, knowing that this peace comes from Him...it's a peace beyond our understanding....He gives it to us when we truly hand it over to Him with a thankful heart. We can't attain this peace ourselves....He gives it to us. Thank you Jesus!

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 ESV)

Clean Slate

Wanted to share something as I read these verses.....

1 Kings 14:7-8 7 Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,

8 And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes;

God saw David as a man who kept His commandments, who followed with all his heart, who did right in God's eyes. 

What? Huh? Is He talking about THE David? The guy who killed a man so he could have his wife? The one he got pregnant? David who committed adultery? That David? That no good rotten scoundrel? How could God speak of him with such honor after doing those disgusting things? How could God possibly see David as a man who did right in His eyes?

Here is what made the difference......

David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. (2 Samuel 12:13 ESV)

David acknowledged his sin before God. He repented and was forgiven. And what did God do? When He forgave......He also forgot. 

It is the same for us. When we confess our sin before God, when we repent......He forgives and He wipes the slate clean! 

For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12 ESV)

How amazing is that? How wonderful to know that my slate is wiped clean! 

Desolate Place

DESOLATE PLACE

Mark  6:31 And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while". 

(KJV refers to it as a desert place)

The disciples had just returned from a mission journey. They were no doubt pumped & eager to share with Jesus what they had taught & what they had witnessed along the way, including the knowledge of the beheading of John the Baptist. 

But they were also exhausted, physically & mentally. There was still so much going on in their midst, they had no time for leisure, or even the simple task of eating. 

So Jesus beckons for them to come & be with Him in a desolate place, a desert place. 

"Desolate" in the dictionary can mean barren, a wasteland, a treeless landscape, deprived of inhabitants, solitary, lonely, dreary, dismal. 

He wanted them to be in a place where there was nothing at all to distract them from His presence. A place of total reliance on Him. To refresh them, He needed to have them in a place devoid of water, so to speak! 

As I look at my own life, I see during times of great stress or busyness, I too have been led to a desolate place, where there is nothing but my Saviour. When the circumstances of life have crowded and hemmed me in, and I am brought to my knees in utter surrender. A place where my choices are limited or none at all, where I have been abandoned and left forlorn, a place where all I see is Him. 

It's only then that I am able to see with clarity, to hear His words spoken for me. In this barren landscape that my heart sits, in this place of pain where everything within me cries out in thirst. Desperate for the refreshment only He can give. 

Sometimes we need the desolate place, we need to retreat here to be with Jesus. And there are times He has to take us there against our will. 

In this wasteland where hope seems lost......the greatest treasures are found.  We can't find them in the good times, we can't find them in the plenty. We can't find them in the times where we have no need of Him because we are too busy being self sufficient. 

In this chapter of Mark, we read that the time alone was brief, because the people followed them & even more came from all cities to see Jesus.  

The pressures of our own lives also chase after us, threatening to once again hem us in. Those pressures don't necessarily diminish just because we have gone away to rest awhile. But what does happen is a new source of strength and purpose that God plants in us. 

Quite simply, what God pours into us, while in the desolate place, can then be poured out as we re-enter the circumstances we were unable to cope with before. 

It's hard to feel thankful when we are beset by trials, & during these times the thought of being in the desert is far from appealing! We want the quick fix, minimal pain. We want God to wave a magic wand & put a stop to our pain. 

But when He leads us to this solitary place with Him, we find that as the layers are removed, along with the unravelling of our thoughts and desires, there is something so precious, so intrinsically ours alone....something so profound He wants to reveal....it actually turns this desert into a beautiful oasis. 

Psalm 42:1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 

Psalm 42:11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. 

SEED SPROUTS

SEED SPROUTS

Never underestimate the power of a seed!

Recently, I bumped into a lovely lady. She hugged me & told me what a wonderful worship leader my son is, and how proud I must be, as a mother....and so blessed. I beamed!! Yes I am immensely proud of my son, but even more immensely blessed as I watch my son grow in faith to be a remarkable young man of God. In fact, I believe my son has an anointing yet to be revealed.  I have had this confirmed over the years by many people. 

But in that moment, after this lady spoke, something very significant occurred to me. You see, it was this very same lady, who 20 years ago, led me to The Lord! She was on the pastoral care team, which in those days didn't have such a fancy name! 

This lady would visit me each week & all she really did was love me. I say this because she put up with a lot on those visits! Apart from having to listen to the troubles & woes of a struggling single mother, she also had to put up with the cigarette smoke! She would speak to me so kindly as she shared the gospel with me. She seemed to look past all my imperfections, & I truly believe, her acceptance of me as a person is what truly showed me the love of Christ. To reach me, God sent the best person for the job. It had to be one with just the right characteristics for this particular moment! 

As I backtrack even further, I come to a time in my teens, when I was first introduced to the concept of a God who was more than some abstract being in the sky. I got "saved", though I didn't have a clue what that really meant! I was just excited to be part of this very different church, having grown up in the Church of England environment! 

During this brief period, something stands out, that I believe was another "seed" sown. My brother in law & his sister often sang during church. He played guitar as well. I remember an occasion where I sang with them, & the song, "For Those Tears I Died", had such an impact on me, that those lyrics were somehow never forgotten, despite my turning my back on this God who loved me relentlessly. Oddly enough, the song would stir up an emotion in me that I never quite understood, until I gave my life to Christ in my early thirties! 

Often we panic at the thought of sharing the gospel. I for one, quake at the knees, knowing full well I am not gifted in evangelism! Yet the bible tells us to share the good news of the gospel. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells His disciples to go out & teach all nations. This applies to us as well, but of course we can't all be proficient in this task!

I think the most important thing to remember is that we don't do the saving! Only God does. It's God who prepares hearts, God who orchestrates who crosses our path at a given moment. A friend who is a taxi driver, was recounting recently of a man who rode in his taxi. Apparently this man was suicidal, so my taxi driver friend broached the subject of faith, and told this man about Jesus. The man appeared aggravated by this & retorted that he wasn't interested in religion. My friend was disappointed that he couldn't help this man. He felt a bit of a failure as a Christian. He shouldn't though! For all he knows, a seed may have been sown. Perhaps somewhere down the track, that sown seed will be watered & fed by other followers of Christ. Of course there is a possibility that this man would reject Christ even then. But it isn't for us to know. Our job is to remain obedient & do God's will. 

No matter how ineffectual we feel with our two loaves & fishes, God could take those & multiply them a thousandfold! Nothing out of the ordinary for Him! 

I doubt if this lady who visited me, wondered what the outcome would be for me, years down the track.  Her task was to minister to me & share the good news of Christ. She may have felt her contribution to be very little......yet here we are twenty years later. She had no idea, as I did either that way down the track, this young woman she ministered to would become a woman, passionately devoted to following Christ, stepping out of that comfort zone doing You Tube videos, or writing blogs or standing up for her faith in the midst of derision! And the little toddler playing with Lego would be a worship leader, a young man earnestly following Christ, a young man with an amazing servant heart, who wants nothing more than to walk in the will of his God. 

From little things, big things grow!

The Photo Album

As I was driving to work one day, I found myself reminiscing of times gone past. I was remembering the first dress I wore when I started a new job, after high school. 

I also remembered the shoes I wore, but I was struggling to remember what my hair looked like. 

And then I became kind of mellow as different memories surfaced, & I thought, wouldn't it be cool to see a movie of your life...those younger days...the fashions, the seasons...things you don't always remember...

But then suddenly I realised there are some things in my past I would rather not be reminded of. I think there are several scenes that I would need to fast forward from..

I guess the movie of my life wouldn't really be a good idea after all. I wouldn't be able to edit & remove the bits I don't want God to see.....too late, He already has!

Romans 14:12 so then each of us will give an account of himself to God. 

As I drove, I thought about that verse. I wonder how God will do it....wonder how I would give an account of my life to Him, who is holy, without blemish. How could I stand before Him, every part of my heart exposed to the One who sees all & knows all. 

And then I thought, well He already knows every inch of my life....nothing escapes His eye on me. My bad behaviours, my bad attitudes, the harsh thoughts, the harsh words, the hurt I've caused someone, my lack of forgiveness, every little sin....He sees it all. 

Yes, when I confess & repent, He does forgive me, & the Bible says He remembers my sin no more.....the slate is wiped clean. 

But.....while I'm sinning, He sees it. You know what? The thought of this makes me feel a little bit like Adam & Eve when God exposed their disobedience. I want to hide from Him.....I want to cover myself.....

I don't know how it will be on that day when I have to give an account of my life. All I can really do is deal with the here & now. Right now I want to stand before Him, blameless, wearing a clean garment. 

Yet here I stand, in my filthy rags.....but comforted in knowing that while I can't make them clean, my Saviour can. He is the only perfect stain remover! 

I'm not looking forward to giving an account of my life, I cringe at the thought, yet I know that it will actually be a cleansing of this life spent in my mortal flesh....my sins have been forgiven. I have been saved through the blood of Christ & my eternity is secure in His care. 

Temptation as we wait.....

How long must we wait until the fulfillment of the word of the Lord ... Will it be too late? Will we, or our children's children, be subsumed by the dragging, ever-present seduction of the glittering culture surrounding us? When the Lord calls, will anyone desire to listen? -- Thom Lemmons


There is so much out there in the world to entice and seduce us. We get lulled by a false sense of security that we can handle it, we are strong in our faith after all.....aren't we???

We, as believers are just as susceptible to the "call of the wild".

Only through a close relationship with Jesus Christ can we overcome the temptations of this world. We need to pray, we need to soak in God's Word, we need to live the life He designed for us.......